Judging Freedom - Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer: Is Ukraine Finished?

Episode Date: January 19, 2024

Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer: Is Ukraine Finished?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Tony Schaefer, welcome here, my dear friend. Thank you for joining us as always. You and I have talked about this a hundred times and a lot of our viewers are trying to get a handle on it. What do you think the essence of Joe Biden's foreign policy is? Is it a mindset stuck in the Cold War? Is it an idealistic, however misguided, view of American exceptionalism? Or is it just feed the monster, feed the military-industrial complex so they'll finance our re-election campaigns? Joe Biden's national security and his basic understanding of foreign policy is absolutely nothing, zero. He has zero interest as a person. Judge, what we've seen, and I think why he was picked, is because he's an empty vessel. I've met Joe Biden.

I testified before him. And I'm of a belief, and I've thought about this. I didn't know you're going to ask this question this morning, but I've thought about this a lot over the last couple of days, the nature of Biden and where we're going as a nation with people like him. He's another form of grifter, just smarter than most grifters. He has grifted his entire career and benefited from essentially being morally pliable, from actually being the hyper, let's lock them all up guy during the 90s to the guy today who is professing a love for democracy

and yet saying everything and doing everything to undermine it. So Joe Biden has no philosophy. He is literally a vessel for somebody. The question is, who is the Joe Biden whisperer? Who gives Joe Biden his points? Is it Jill? I think Jill has a lot of influence on him. Is it President Obama?

I think it's Obama. And then if you take it to that next level, well, who's advising? So I think Joe Biden is the ultimate expression of the left's political folly, that basically they pick people, they run them through. I had my friend Matt Ho on the show yesterday. You may want to talk about Matt a little bit about politics. You know, he ran for Senate in the Green Party when the Democrats sued him. I don't want to get off tangent on that, but I'm just saying that if you look at how they are more of a collective, it's like a hive mind. And Joe Biden is the latest face of that hive mind. So it's not about Joe Biden's philosophy or policy. It's about Joe Biden. And if, if just watch him, he, he shifts with the wind. The one thing that

he said, and I think he's actually trying to work a little bit is I think he, he loved the idea of partitioning Iraq, of just breaking it all up. Not my idea. Matt Ho brought this up to me. So, so Joe Biden has been on the wrong side of every decision in history that I'm aware of. Here's what I'm hearing for you. He's a sponge. He stands for nothing and he absorbs whatever ideas are around him that he thinks are popular at the moment. Is that a fair? Or he's told to say, i think he's like let's let's just look at a recent example of one of his comments uh taiwan taiwan had uh overwhelming uh election you know had an election which they they returned to power for the first time in its

history as taiwan a a the same political power for the third time. They had two terms of one president and the party won again with a different guy. But the theme of the party is anti-CCP PRC. They don't want to be part of China, the larger China. They want to be Taiwanese. And so they voted. It's a democracy. And yet, Judge, what's the first thing Joe Biden comes out and says, who's screamed about having less democracies and more democracies after the years of Trump. He says, we're not for Taiwanese independence, even though they voted a party back in power who promoted Taiwanese independence. Wait a minute. I thought he was talking about sending troops to Taiwan to defend it from the mainland. Now he says he's not in favor of Taiwan independence, even though the people there voted for it overwhelmingly.

That's correct. It was in Reuters. Reuters did a whole write-up on this. Absolutely. And so why did Joe say that? Because I think someone told him to say it. How bad are things in Ukraine? Is it on its last leg? Yeah, it is. There's no way of putting a happy face on this i think people at davos and and and uh nato spokesman and all these other nato leader it's like they they're literally living in an alternate world the the russians you know i don't want to i don't know how to say this about sounding pro-russian the russians have won there there's no path forward for the Ukrainian military to return to an offensive. It's just not possible.

The numbers aren't there. The Russians now have the option. I'm not going to exercise it. I have no inside knowledge. I don't talk to any Russians. Just looking at the tea leaves and looking at the situation. The Russians are going to have the option now in this spring to go back on the offensive. And they wouldn't have to work that hard to do it. There's different

assessments of how much Russian military force is involved. I think about 25 percent. Others are saying as low as 10. I think the Russians have sufficient military power to take over the whole of Ukraine if they want. But I don't think that- You know, it's funny you should say that. And what I'm now about to discuss, I attribute to President Putin's political skills. He often uses his predecessor, the guy who was president when Putin was not allowed to run for election, they since have changed their constitution, Medvedev, Dmitry Medvedev, who's now the vice chair of their National Security Council. He often uses Dmitry Medvedev's extreme statements to make himself, Biden, sound more moderate of tone.

Because today, it's funny, you said what you just said, unless you already know what I'm going to say. No, I don't. Okay, today, Dmitry Medvedev said, Kiev is in our crosshairs. Now we have never heard that from president Putin. We have never seen an indication of that from their military. They either mean it or met Mr. Medvedev is saying it to make his boss sound moderate and restrained in comparison. What does Tony Schaefer think?

Well, I think, look, I think a lot of us on both sides recognize that this war could have been avoided. That going back to your original question about Joe Biden, Joe Biden is the ultimate expression of the globalists who want a pound of flesh. This has been brewing a long time. Again, I want to give credit where credit's due. Matt Ho said this on your show. I talked to Matt yesterday, just so you know. Matt and I are friends. Matt, I think in your show, aptly outlined how the war in Ukraine

and Russia has been planned a long time. There's a lot of folks who were just gunning for that showdown. They really thought that Ukraine was going to be a massive resource add to the EU and that they could collapse Russia. This was their fantasy. And so Joe Biden, being Joe Biden, was kind of willing to go along with all that and be the face of it. And that's why everything is so bad now. Because to your point, the Russians are feeling put upon. You know, I've done this before. I'll do it again. You know, Mongol, 1237, Ottoman Empire, 1570, Sweden, 1708, French, you know, Napoleon, 1812, Japan, 1905, U.S., that's us, 1918, and

Germany, 1941. These are all the invasions of Russia. So Russia has an inherent fear of these things. And so that has been inspired by the bellicose language and actions by the EU and the United States. So I can see where people have bad feelings. But Putin, I think, is trying to be, dare I say it, the adult in the room. We just don't have an adult in the room on our side right now. All right. Switching gears to Gaza.

Yeah. It appears that the Israeli government is about to remove a lot of troops from Gaza. Is this for real? And if so, why? I think they're doing it because Joe Biden's putting pressure on them. Do I think they're doing it for real? No, I don't. You and I don't necessarily share the same views on this, Judge, but I will say this, that the Israelis are doing everything they can to manage Joe Biden's expectations and continue the war. Nobody can really disagree with that. I mean, you could even take that to the extent that

the Israelis control Joe Biden through the donor class in the United States. You know that. You're involved in politics yourself. I am. But the thing is, this is the dilemma of even the donor class. The donor class who want Joe Biden to be reelected also have to acknowledge that they have the Hamas caucus within the left. So you've put these two diverse groups together within their own little tent, and you've got literally people who are ready to kill each other inside that tent. I'm saying that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, but I'm not for violence necessarily, but I'm just saying you've got large donors who are Jewish, not saying anything bad, and you've got radical leftists who believe that Hamas needs to be supported

and the Palestinians are indeed under siege. So you've got these conflicting groups within the same political tent, and they're about to go at each other. I think it could be a major meltdown just because of the chaos this is going to create. And yeah, Joe Biden is, by all accounts, again, I don't have inside knowledge. I'm just going with what I've read and seen. I think Biden and Netanyahu hate each other. I think there's some real issues because their political futures, their respective political futures and being successful in those paths, one of the two have to lose because for Netanyahu to recover,

he's got to be seen as a strong man and prevail. For Biden, he's got to figure out a way to stop Netanyahu and make this Israeli thing go away. And they are in direct conflict, and I think that's why they hate each other. All right. Watch this, Chris. I think it's cut number 12. This is Admiral Kirby on when was the last time President Biden spoke on the phone? This is yesterday. When is the last time President Biden spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu? When was the last time President Biden spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu? When was the last time President Biden spoke on the phone with Netanyahu?

There has not been another call since the last one we read out. I don't have the exact date in front of me. It's been more than 20 days, I think. More than 20 days. If we were to go more than 20 days without those enormous military cargo planes landing in Tel Aviv with military equipment, the Israeli military would collapse. Am I right, Tony? I don't think it would collapse, but it would be significantly degraded.

It would be degraded, because the Israelis are committed to doing things as they have to. All right, so the war is going to doing things as they have to. All right. So the war is going on. The war is going on. They're not going to stop. I think it's genocide.

You don't. The war is going on. We know that the United States is providing so much equipment. We know that AIPAC and the donor class pretty much has a lock on Biden. I don't dispute that. Right. I agree with you. And these two guys are not talking?

That's my point. No, as I said, their political futures are diametrically opposed. They're literally, you know, to be successful, they've got to pull apart. And that's why you see this, like, I don't want to talk to the guy because the more, again, I don't want to get into the policy prescriptions that you and I disagree on. I'm just saying regarding the political posturing that's going on, no matter how you feel about it, it's very clear. These two men are going in different directions. Right.

Because they're going in such radically different directions with such radically different outcomes sought, they're going to do everything they can to basically ignore each other. They're going to pretend, you know, no, no, no, you know, I'm not going to listen to you. And that's why you see this. And the United States is going to continue to support the Israelis. I'm just telling you what, I'm not involved.

This is a very astute analysis, Tony. Biden cannot defend the war much longer in the democratic party and bb cannot afford to end the war exactly or he gets prosecuted and probably gets convicted so their interests are the opposite right exactly by the way judge one one moment uh if i could uh back on john kirby john you look absolutely marvelous. You always, you know, it's better to look good in the field than you, John. You look marvelous. I have to say that for John. John is always a snappy dresser, you know.

He reminds me of Fernando's hideaway from Saturday Night Live, you know. You look marvelous. While we're talking about personalities in the military, what is the latest with the Secretary of Defense? Well, apparently he's out of the hospital and he's back theoretically doing duties, flight duties at the Pentagon. And if you believe this, now, I don't know what to believe because apparently you know he was uh on a computer he was either basically on one on one hand he had a computer and the other hand he had a bedpan trying to launch attacks into the houthi i don't know how you do that i've never seen that

done but apparently if you believe the pentagon comments that's what he was doing so is joe biden expanding the war by attacking the houthis? So he has no choice. This is, let's break this down as briefly as we can within the time we have. The Iranians have had, via the IRGC and the Quds Force, a desire to expand influence in the region, period. That's the policy. No matter how you and I feel or anyone else feels, it's what they've done. That's why they've funded and supported all these different groups, everything from Hamas to Hezbollah to the Houthi. That's their policy. It is what it is. They were

launching attacks against us in Afghanistan in 2003, 2004. So it is what it is. The Biden administration comes in, removes all of the different points of control and influence that the Trump administration had in place. And one of those was working with our Arab allies to stop groups like the Houthi. There was a war, you and I are aware of it, where the Saudis were fighting the Houthi in Yemen. By the way, the UN supported this because the Houthi deposed the elected government of Yemen, and even the UN was supporting this at one point. So Biden comes in, removes Houthi from the terror list, refunds the Iranians and Katie bar the door. So the Biden policies are what has led to the failure because it's not just us. The international community recognized Iran was going to be a bad actor. So what we did is we defended, defunded our Arab allies, pulled them, made the Saudis pull

out of Yemen, funded the Iranians, let them to have full rain, and basically a green light saying, we're not going to do anything to stop you. And that's why you see this now, the Houthi. And by the way, the Houthi have gone from essentially guys who rode around in Toyota 4x4s with AK-47s to using sophisticated drone technology. You're getting to my next point, Tony, which is that these actions will have reactions and the reactions will expand regionally. The Israeli Gaza conflict and may very well draw the United States in. I mean, these attacks are coming from the U.S. Navy. McGregor tells me, and you know this better than I, that a half dozen drones that they can buy for $10,000 each can sink a billion-dollar naval ship.

I'm not suggesting for a moment that I want this to happen, but I'm suggesting that this might happen because we are picking a fight with these people whose views of the world are different than ours. So I don't think picking a fight is the issue. The issue is how quick can we adapt? Again, this is not just about us. 12% of global commerce goes to the Red Sea and within the Gulf of Aden. That's not us. That's the world. And if we want to just sit back and do nothing, then sure, you're going to see economic, everything go down, you know, be affected economically, everything from gas prices to goods. I don't think we want to do that. Again, you know, I'm not for us being the global policeman, but the Fifth Fleet's there for a reason. Okay, I get your argument.

And this is something that we've added to. I want to appeal to the part of your heart and head that is libertarian. And I know it is there because we've had these conversations during our 15-year friendship. So this is Javier Millay, the new president of Argentina, speaking at the Davos conference yesterday. I spoke for a long time. Chris has distilled it down to about a minute and ten seconds. The essence of what he's saying is the West is dying. Good afternoon.

Thank you very much. Today I'm here to tell you that the Western world is in danger. And it is in danger because those who are supposed to have to defend the values of the West are co-opted by a vision of the world others motivated by the wish to belong to a privileged caste, the main leaders of the Western world have abandoned the model of freedom for different versions of what we call collectivism. We're here to tell you that collectivist experiments are never the solution to the problems that afflict the citizens of the world. Rather, they are the root cause. Do believe me, no one better place than us Argentines to testify to these two points. Does the West have any basic morals left or is it just grab what you can and call it democracy? I like the way you framed it. I think,

and by the way, he's in the den of socialism right there on this. Yes, he is. Yes, he is. Holy cow. Zelensky spoke to them. Jake Sullivan spoke to them. Tony Blinken spoke to them. All these lefties that are CEOs of Fortune 100 corporations are there. Charlie Gasparino is there. Yeah. So, well, first off, let me frame this by, as I always say, never trust a German with a utopian vision of global order. And Klaus Schw, you know, we tried it in the 30s. It didn't work. I don't think it'll work again now, just saying. And the same thing now. He said, I agree with everything he said, Xavier, that, you know, we have a path that the globalists have essentially laid out. I don't think they wanted to hear that. No, I don't think they did,

but I'm not surprised they let him. I mean, I can't believe they didn't know what he was going to say. And he said it. And yeah, he's right. And because everything Davos stands for is exactly opposite of what he just said. They want us to be kind of eating bugs and happy owning nothing, which is the ultimate expression of socialism or feudal mercantilism, which is another form of what they're talking about. So, yeah. Tony, thank you, my dear friend. I appreciate your analysis very much.

I appreciate your time. I know the viewers do as well. It's early in the morning here on the East Coast in northern New Jersey. We have a foot of snow on the ground, and it's 10 degrees out. My little Chris wants to go with the dog, wants to go outside and play in the snow. But here I am. That's good. Well, you live in a good part of go outside and play in the snow. But here I am. That's good. Well, you live in a good part of Jersey outside of the refinery area.

So that's good. Good for you, John. Don't be a wise guy. Thank you, Tony. All the best. We'll see you next week. Okay. Thank you.

What a day we have coming up. So after Tony Schaefer, Professor Sachs, Scott Ritter will tell us about his trip to the Donbass. Scott Horton, who's going to make the opposite argument from Tony Schaefer, Phil Giraldi, Colonel Wilkerson, and how else can you end the day as the sun is going down, the fearless Max Flumenthal. We'll see you shortly. Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom. Thank you.